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battle of the blogs

While blogging is still fairly new to me, following blogs isn’t. My two favorite “foodie” and nutrition blogs are Food Babe and 100 Days of Real Food. They both support eating real, whole foods but they take two very different approaches.

Vani Hari is the “Food Babe.” A Charlotte, North Carolina resident she is a food/exercise/beauty activate. Her story began after suffering from health issues. She went the holistic route and change in diet… well a BIG change. She eliminated all processed foods. In turn, she obides by a strict “diet” of raw, organic produce and some meats. Vani also uses organic soaps, shampoo, etc. She orders speciality snacks in bulk and prepares travel-packs to avoid any processed ingredients. When she does eat out, again, only raw restuarants or places where she can speak with the chef to ensure clean-eating policies are enforced are on the menu. She’s full of spirit, energy and passion. And while it’s really inspiring to see a woman trying to spread the word about eating healthy, caring for your body, and advocating an organic diet, I’m not always convinced she sees the complete picture. I’ll go even further, in my opinion she’s a radicalist.

Vani’s “Hummus Mezze Plate” Great for a snack but not a runner friendly dinner

One post of hers that particualrly bothered me was a smartphone shot of her and her family at a BBQ joint. Her plate was a slim bed of lettuce. The caption was something to the effect of, “what to eat when your family doesn’t share the same food views as you.” It bothered me (and a LOT of her Facebook followers). She put so much emphasis on what they were eating. In my opinion, value the time with your family, eat a piece of steak- it’s not going to kill you given your overall lifestyle. Time with loved ones is far more important than eating one meal that’s non organic/raw. Seriously.

Vani is politically driven- on this I suppport her 100%. It’s the main reason I visit her site. She seems educated enough to piece together some interesting blurbs and gets some nods from local media. She’s been a part of the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections having met Obama back in the day and during this years campaign. I was her on TV holding up signs in support of labeling GMOs in American foods. We are one of the only countries that does not mandate GMO laden foods to be labeled. Most countries have banned GMOs completely… here in America, we don’t even label!! Vani recienes many headlines in her local media fighting for food issues. She’s a voice of reason in this case and her fight is worth fighting.

Lisa’s “real” school lunch for her daughter

100 Days of Real Food is the story of another family located in Charlotte, NC . Lisa Leake, a wife and mother of two girls took a 100 day pledge to eat only real, unprocessed foods. They cut out all the processed junk that you cannot pronounce on food labels and stuck to ingrediants that they knew were fuel for their bodies. What I LOVE about this family is their real approach to real eating. She’s honest and admits, “I had never before read an ingredient label, bought anything that was organic (at least not on purpose), nor had I ever stepped foot in a farmers’ market.” Lisa’s style of presenting GMO and food issues are less abrasive, in turn making them more approachable from a reader’s standpoint.

Lisa spreads the word of acceptable when it comes to complete eating, not blame. Vani often releases artciels under “Food Babe Investigaes.” She’s covers popular chains such as Chick-Fil-A, Panera Bread and Subway (yup, NOTHING is safe with Food Babe). And, while it’s a no brainer to me that fast food chains aren’t considered “real” wholesome food (duh), what Vani’s site lacks is what you can eat. People reading Food Babe because they know these things already. They follow you because they want to know where we can eat out when we are in a pinch. She’s a finger pointer, which is good for advocating folks in California vote YES to Prop 37 (the labeling of all GMO foods) it’s leaves a bad taste reader’s mouths. She publicly makes known what food is garbage but doesn’t do much to share what we can do differently other than snapping pictures of her meals which are nothing more than raw veggies and homemade hummus. Are you full yet? I’m not.

We want to know how we can take processed food and turn them healthy… this is where Lisa and 100 Days of Real Food rocks… Lisa isn’t a stickler about 100% organic, although she does say when you can buy organics, it’s recommended. Several of her blogs and Facebook posts drive home the point that if real food is a change for you, don’t dwell on the fact that the apple you packed for a snack isn’t organic. The main thing? IT’S AN APPLE. Congrats to you! You chose an apple and not a bag of Cheetos. Lisa’s family stopped buying things like Pop-Tarts, but she gets that hey, they are made of crap but taste really good sometimes 😉 So she provides her bloggers with recipes for homemade versions made of whole wheat crust and jarred jams she’s canned herself. You might think, “Well now I have to go Google ‘How to can fruit’ but, Lisa shares that with us, too! She is also very honest, stating that she can’t control life. With two girls in school it’s expected that someone in class will have a birthday party and give out donuts. Or around the holidays, like Halloween… she still allows the girls to go out trick-or-treating (while at home they gave out glow-sticks). But after allowing her girls to choose a small portion to keep and ration, she donated the rest.

Bottom line is, both these sites are great resources for very different reasons. I encourage you to take a look at both and comment some of your initial thoughts!